JPH09128944A - Disk autochanger and control method for disk autochanger - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a disk autochanger which automatically selects a tray suitable for addition or exchange of a new disk from among plural trays that house disks. SOLUTION: The autochanger selects one of plural trays 11a-11g which accommodate disks to add or exchange for a new disk. It is provided with a controller 16 which selects a tray for housing a new disk from plural trays 11a-11g based on the selection standards preset in a second storage section 17b on the presence of vacant trays, the order of trays in the route to the disk delivery position and the reproduction frequency of the disk loaded on each tray.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention stores a disc-shaped recording medium such as an optical disc or a magnetic disc (this is simply referred to as a disc) in a plurality of trays, and selects any disc stored in these trays. The present invention relates to a disc autochanger device for recording / reproducing information and a control method for the disc autochanger device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional disk autochanger device will be described below with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a conventional disk autochanger device.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a conventional disk autochanger device, which mainly comprises a stocker 11;
And a plurality of trays 1 stocked in the stocker 11
1a, 11b, 11c, 11d, 11e, 11f, 1
1 g and a stocker elevating unit 12 for elevating and lowering the stocker 11
A tray position detecting unit 13 for detecting the trays 11a to 11g arranged at the disc unloading position A by the stocker elevating unit 12, and unloading the trays 11a to 11g arranged at the disc unloading position A from the stocker 11; A tray transport section 14 for transporting to the playback position B or the disc mounting position C, a disc playback section 15 for playing information recorded on the optical disc on the trays 11a to 11g arranged at the disc playback position B, The control section 160 manages the operation control and the state transition inside the apparatus.

The control unit 160 is connected to a storage unit 170 and a tray operation key 180, and further, a computer 20 and a display 20 a are connected via an interface 19.

The storage unit 170 has trays 11a to 11a.
g associated with the tray number (address) assigned to
Information of each optical disk (name, number, etc. for specifying the optical disk) was stored.

When an arbitrary tray number is designated by the tray operation key 180, the control section 160 activates the tray transport section 14, and the tray transport section 14 discards the trays 11a to 11g corresponding to the designated tray number. It was configured to transport to the mounting position C.

In the conventional disk autochanger device 100 having such a configuration, each of the trays 11a to 11a
When adding / exchanging the optical disk stored in 11g, first, the application program of the computer 20 was executed, and the storage status of each of the trays 11a to 11g was displayed on the display 20a. If there is an empty tray on the display 20a, the operator designates the tray number of the empty tray (for example, the tray 11a) by using the tray operation key 180, and transports the empty tray 11a to the disk mounting position C. Then, a new optical disk is mounted on the empty tray 11a. On the other hand, when the display of the display 20a shows that there is no empty tray, the operator selects an arbitrary tray (for example, the tray 11b) that stores the optical disk to be exchanged based on the disk information displayed on the display 20a. To do. Next, the selected tray 11b is transported to the disk mounting position C, and the existing optical disk to be replaced is replaced with a new optical disk. When the addition / exchange of the new optical disk is completed, the information of the new optical disk is transferred to the tray 11b storing the information.
And stored in the storage unit 170. As a result, a new optical disk can be searched by the application program of the computer 20 thereafter.

[0008]

However, in the above-described conventional disk autochanger apparatus, even if there is an empty tray 11a, the application program of the computer 20 is executed to display the storage status of each of the trays 11a to 11g. Unless this display is confirmed, the empty tray 11a cannot be selected.

When there is no empty tray, each tray 1
One of the existing optical disks housed in 1a to 11g must be replaced with a new optical disk. In such a case, the operator must select an existing optical disk to be replaced, and It was difficult to determine whether to replace.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-273370, the control unit is configured to always load the frequently used optical disk in the disk drive means (tray transport unit) based on the frequency of use of a plurality of optical disks, thereby enabling recording. There has been proposed an information processing apparatus for improving the search efficiency of an optical disc to be played back.

However, this information processing apparatus is intended to shorten the search time when searching for an arbitrary optical disk from a plurality of optical disks, and to select an empty tray or determine an existing optical disk to be replaced. It was not designed to be able to do this automatically, and the above problems could not be solved.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and automatically selects a tray suitable for adding or exchanging a new disc from a plurality of trays for storing discs. It is an object of the present invention to provide a disc autochanger device and a method for controlling the disc autochanger device.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, a disk autochanger device according to claim 1 is provided with:
A disc autochanger device for selecting one of a plurality of trays for accommodating a disc and adding or replacing a new disc, wherein the plurality of trays are selected based on a predetermined selection criterion. A control unit for selecting a tray for accommodating a new disc from among the above is provided.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the disc autochanger device, the selection criterion is presence / absence of an empty tray, and / or the order of trays up to the disc unloading position, and / or reproduction of discs placed on each tray. It has a frequency configuration.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for controlling a disc autochanger device, which selects one of a plurality of trays for storing discs to add or replace a new disc. If there is only one empty tray, the control unit of the disc autochanger detects if there is one, and selects this tray as the tray for storing new discs. If there is, the empty tray closest to the disc eject position is selected as the tray for storing new discs.If there is no empty tray, it is based on the playback frequency of the discs placed on each tray. And a procedure for selecting a tray for storing a new disc.

According to the disc autochanger device and the disc autochanger device control method of the present invention as described above, it is possible to output a command from the plurality of trays by simply outputting a command to the controller to add or replace a new disc. , The most suitable tray for adding or replacing a new disc can be automatically selected. Therefore, a new disk can be added or replaced without bothering the operator.

[0017]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of a disc autochanger device and a disc autochanger device control method of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, an embodiment of a disc autochanger device of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a disc autochanger device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The disc autochanger device of the present invention is characterized by the control unit and the control method by the control unit, and the other parts have substantially the same structure as the conventional disc autochanger device. Therefore,
In the embodiments described below, the same parts as those in the related art are designated by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted. Also,
The disc autochanger device of this embodiment is for an optical disc.

In the figure, 16 is a control unit, which is connected to the first and second storage units 17a and 17b and the first and second input keys 18a and 18b.

Each of the trays 11a ...
Information on each optical disk (name, number, etc. for identifying the disk) associated with the tray number (address) allocated to 11g is stored.

The second storage unit 17b stores a plurality of trays 11a to 11g when storing new optical disks.
A selection criterion for selecting one tray from among the above is set. The selection criteria are the presence or absence of an empty tray, the order of the trays up to the disk discharge position A, and the reproduction frequency of the optical disk placed on each tray.

The first input key 18a is used for manually operating the disc autochanger device 10. By designating an arbitrary tray number with the first input key 18a, the control section 16 designates the designated tray number. The trays 11a to 11g corresponding to are transported to the disc reproducing position B or the disc mounting position C.

The second input key 18b is used by the control unit 16 for trays 11a to 11a suitable for adding or exchanging a new optical disk.
11g to perform a selection operation. By operating the second input key 18b, the control unit 16g is operated.
Then, a command to add or replace a new optical disk is output.

The control unit 16 controls the information of each optical disc associated with the tray number stored in the first storage unit 17a (hereinafter,
Disc information).
Recognize the storage condition of 11g. The control unit 16 detects the trays 11a to 11g disposed at the disc unloading position A based on the detection signal from the tray position detecting unit 13, and detects each tray 11a to the disc unloading position A.
The order of a to 11g is calculated and stored as needed.

The control unit 16 also controls the trays 11a-1a.
Each time the optical disk stored in 1g is reproduced, a signal is output to the first storage unit 17a, and data on the number of times of reproduction of each optical disk is added to the disk information of the first storage unit 17a. Further, when a command to add or replace a new optical disk is input, the control unit 16 sets a tray 11a suitable for adding or replacing a new optical disk based on the selection criteria set in the second storage unit 17b. Select ~ 11g.

Next, an embodiment of the control method of the disc autochanger device of the present invention will be described. When adding or replacing a new optical disk, the operator only needs to operate the second input key 18b. Then, the control unit 16
Is based on the selection criteria set in the second storage unit 17b,
According to the following procedure, one of the trays 11a to 11g suitable for adding or replacing a new optical disc is automatically selected.

First, the control unit 16 includes the first storage unit 17a.
The presence / absence of an empty tray is detected based on the disk information stored in. When there is only one empty tray (for example, the tray 11a), the control unit 16 selects this tray 11a as a tray for storing a new optical disk. Two or more empty trays (eg trays 11a, 11
b), the controller 16 controls the tray position detector 13
To calculate the order of the trays 11a to 11g up to the disk unloading position A based on the detection signal from the empty tray 11b. To select as the tray. When there is no empty tray, the control unit 16 determines that the first storage unit 1
Based on the reproduction frequency data of each optical disk included in the disk information 7a, the tray (e.g., tray 11c) storing the optical disk with the lowest reproduction frequency is
Select as a tray for storing a new optical disk. After that, the control unit 16 operates the stocker elevating / lowering unit 12 and the tray position detecting unit 13 to place the one tray selected by the above procedure at the disc unloading position A. Then, the tray transport section 14 is driven to transport the one tray to the disk mounting position C. As a result, a new optical disc can be added or replaced.

According to the disc autochanger device and the control method of the disc autochanger device of the present embodiment, the second input key 18b is simply operated.
From the plurality of trays 11a to 11g, the tray most suitable for adding or replacing a new optical disk can be automatically selected. Therefore, a new optical disk can be added or replaced without bothering the operator.

The disc autochanger device and the disc autochanger device control method of the present invention are as follows.
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example,
The selection criterion of trays is not limited to the presence / absence of empty trays, the order of trays up to the disc unloading position A, and the reproduction frequency of the discs placed on each tray, and the selection criterion may be any priority of the operator. . Further, any one or two of the presence or absence of an empty tray, the order of the trays up to the disk unloading position A, and the reproduction frequency of the disk placed on each tray may be used as the selection criterion. Further, a disk with a high reproduction frequency may be replaced.

Furthermore, the disc autochanger device and the control method of the disc autochanger device of the present invention can be applied not only to optical discs but also to various disc-shaped recording media such as magnetic discs.

[0031]

As described above, according to the disc autochanger device and the disc autochanger device control method of the present invention, it is suitable for adding or exchanging a new disc from a plurality of trays for accommodating the discs. The tray can be automatically selected, and a new disk can be added or replaced without any trouble to the operator.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a disc autochanger device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a conventional disk autochanger device.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Disk autochanger apparatus 11 Stocker 11a, 11b, 11c, 11d, 11e, 11f, 1
1g Tray 12 Stocker raising / lowering section 13 Tray position detecting section 14 Tray transport section 15 Disc reproducing section 16 Control section 17a First storage section 17b Second storage section 18a First input key 18b Second input key

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A disc autochanger device for selecting one of a plurality of trays for accommodating a disc and adding or exchanging a new disc, based on a predetermined arbitrary selection criterion. An automatic disc changer device comprising: a controller for selecting a tray for accommodating a new disc from the plurality of trays. 2. The selection criterion is the presence / absence of empty trays and / or the order of trays up to the disc unloading position, and / or the reproduction frequency of discs placed on each tray. Disc auto changer device. 3. A method of controlling a disc autochanger device for selecting one of a plurality of trays for storing discs to add or replace a new disc, wherein the control unit of the disc autochanger comprises: If there is only one empty tray, this tray is selected as a tray for storing new discs, and if there are two or more empty trays, the order up to the disc ejection position is determined. Selects the closest empty tray as a tray for storing new discs.If there are no empty trays, the tray for storing new discs is based on the playback frequency of the discs loaded in each tray. A method for controlling a disc autochanger device, which is characterized by selecting.